Development of a questionnaire for assessing Spanish-speaking students' understanding of the nature of models and their uses in science

Abstract

The translation and adaptation of an assessment instrument into another language can be problematic, due, among other reasons, to sociocultural differences. This proved to be the case with the Spanish adaptation of the Students’ Understanding of Models in Science (SUMS) questionnaire, a Likert-type scale developed originally in English. In light of this, and with the additional aim of improving upon certain aspects of the original instrument, we report the development of a new questionnaire for assessing Spanish-speaking students’ understanding of the nature of models and their uses in science, providing validity evidence for the internal structure of the construct measured. The tool was developed by considering various dimensions of this concept that have been described in the literature, as well as the results of studies that piloted the SUMS questionnaire. For each dimension we drew up a set of items that could be rated using a Likert-type scale; half of these items were positively worded with respect to an adequate understanding of models, and half were reverse worded. The adequacy of the proposed items was first assessed by a panel of experts, following which we examined the score structure obtained with the resulting instrument by administering it to a sample of 1272 students aged between 14 and 55 years. After purifying the instrument based on the results of these analyses we obtained a final version of the questionnaire comprising 20 items distributed equally across four subscales: Beyond exact replicas, Purpose of models, Multiple models, and Changing models. The results obtained through factor analysis and structural equation modeling provide validity evidence for the internal structure of the construct measured. The questionnaire is quick to administer and is applicable to students across a wide range of ages and levels of education, including prospective science teachers.